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2 THE PRESBYTERL SABBATH SCHOOL EXTENSION WORK. A most important and useful feature of our Richmond Committee's work, and one never to be forgotten by the Church at large, is the aid which this Committee gives to Sabbath Schools established in new localities, either as mission schools or as branches or extensions of schools and churches already established. But for this help, which has been rendered most cheerfully and liberallv to hundreds nf ???... it ?. w. iivv> OV.HUU15, me latter would not have been able in some cases to begin or to continue. And yet the schools of this class represent in many instances the beginnings of new churches. They are in large measure the aggressive feature of our older churches, sometimes the only aggressive feature. Nourished with care for a few years they become the foundation of substantial churches and the sources of help to others. The writer knows of one case, in which he has been personally concerned, where this help is gradually working out into practical results. For two or three years a little school has been held. Meanwhile it has been a light in a very dark quarter, an oasis in n von't. able desert of Romanism. With each passing month it becomes better known and more influential in all the section where its beneficent work is carried on. Seventeen people, nearly all of them young people, have already come into the church through its instrumentality, and if all works well they will prove the nucleus after awhile of a promising church. But for the aid rendered this little enterprise by the Richmond Committee it could not have been carried on. The offering that our Assembly asks in March tor Sabbath School Extension and Publication, is for just such practical cases as this. WALDF.NSTAN5 TM tuu a xn x ii?lt PROVINCE. Protestants have been by far the largest contributors to the earthquake sufferers. It will be found that relief from America, England and Germany has been the most effective and abundant. It is a matter of concern therefore that relief funds shall ?be honestly and justly administered. A letter written by a Waldensian pastor in Italy which came to the "Herald and Presbyter" gives reason to fear that these evangelistic Christians will not share the relief which their brethren in this country are furnishing. The letter written by Rev. Alberto Clot, says: "We had a strong church at Messina, a station at Reggio di Calabria, and four or five stations in the stricken district. The pastor at Messina, Rev. Adolfo Chauvis, was a schoolmate of mine. He had married, four years ago, a very nice young lady from Palermo the best friend of my wife, who is from Palermo also. In 1905, when there was that awful earthquake in Calabria, the members of our churches in that region did not receive any help from the funds collected for the sufferers, because they were Protestants. The Duke of Aosta, who is the head of the Committee for the Relief Fund, is a very bigoted Catholic, and you may be sure that this time also they will be left aside \N OF THE SOUTH. ^ February 17, igog. because ETotestants. The idea, therefore, of sending the funds collected to the president of our church is very wise, and you may be sure that Rev. Arturo Muston is a man of such high Christian character that he will make the best use of the money. His address is Rev. Arturo Muston, No. 107 Via Nazionale, Roma." When we remember the heroic struggles of these adherents of the apostolic faith, through centuries of Papal persecution, as cruel and relentless as human malice could devise, it becomes a thoughtful and humane public sentiment to demand that in this crisis they shall share the relief that is being provided to save them, in common with their Catholic fellow-citizens, from starvation. When Papal bigotry goes to the extreme of withholding bread from starving humanity, as a device of religious torture, it is time for prompt and determined protest. BRIGHTSIDE NOTES. Our violets are blooming under the ice spread over them by the sleet storm. It is such a pity that they could not have been left in their beauty and fragrance. But suffering patiently they live and bloom on, look ing out irom their cold beds, still warm at heart and hoping for a better day of freedom and sunshine. Some of the sweetest spirits among the child-ren of God arc blooming under the afflictions which have come upon their lives. There are blind, and crippled and palsied ones now, as in the days of the great Healer. Want and sickness, bereavement and sorrow are spread far and wide, and very patient and gentle are many lor whom the Father's discipline, wise and loving, has appointed the chill covering of adversity. And yet they look up into his face without complaint. They grow in the beauty that is within, and are fragrant in love and patience. Our hands are full df the violets we have gathered, and our Little Lady has heaped them in the skirt of her dainty dress. We bring them in from the icy beds to the brightness and warmth of the home. A xl? ' -- ' ? ' ?_mic win wear mem giaaiy, ana tne nome De beautified by their loveliness, and be cheered by their sweetness. How many will God bring with Christ from all the ice and winter of the world's covering of tribulation, into the home above to bloom forever in the love and happiness of his presence? How surprisingf that so manv who hear the name nf Christ change their homes, and do not transfer their church membership. The letter of transfer remains uncared for in the trunk, or has never been asked for. And in the new place of residence they are not known as followers of Christ; they take no part in Christian service to the world, and bear no part in the Church's burden of care